The complaint alleges that Countrywide Financial Corp., which Charlotte-based BofA purchased in 2008, engaged in a practice known as the “Hustle,” a loan-origination process designed to push through loans at high speed and without quality checkpoints. That ultimately resulted in thousands of fraudulent and otherwise defective residential mortgage loans being sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that later defaulted, causing foreclosures and more than $1 billion in losses, alleges Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Countrywide started the practice in 2007, and it continued until at least 2009, after the company was purchased by BofA (NYSE:BAC), according to the Justice Department’s statement.

The government is seeking damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989.

Bank of America is the second-largest bank in Central Florida with $6.9 billion in deposits and 66 branches in the area.